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21 Dec 2010, 10:43
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Hi,
I wrote my gmat yesterday, could not have been worse.
When I started 2 months back, I was always aiming 730+. I don't where this figure came from, but this is the score I aimed at.
I gave mock test like anybody seriously preparing for the exam will do.
In Kaplan, I scored 550(which it eventually turned out to be) and in gmat preps scored 640 in one and 690 in the other. I had to reschedule my exam by a month when I had to tend to certain family things and also I thought I will put on some more effort to achieve at least 700 mark. I started preparing more seriously after I rescheduled my exam. Even though I did not take a full length test after gmat preps, I used to take the sectional tests by score top. I never found any problem as far as scores is considered, at least in maths with 6 wrong ans is the worst I had performed in them.
3-4 days before exam I caught this cough-cold fever, and this to some affected my preparation. As I was very concious that I have to be perfectly fine on the D day, I preferred not to over-stress myself.. This helped me to be a little better on the exam day, but I had not completely recovered.
On the exam day, I reached the centre 30 mins before the scheduled time. When it was 25 mins to go, the guy at the centre asked me for my ID proof. I presented my Driving Licence, he said it won't work as the ID proof, I handed him my pan card. Then he informed me, I was supposed to bring my passport with me. I missed this in the instructions, as this was not mentioned in the mail which I received after I rescheduled my exam. Though, it was mentioned in the mail I had got initially. I urged the guy to allow me to take up the exam, but he refused categorically. Then 15 mins before the exam, I asked him to give me 15 mins more which anybody gets after his actually scheduled time. When it took my 35 mins to reach exam centre from my home. I had 30 mins to reach home, get passport and then come back, I drove crazily and managed to reach back in 28 mins. While I was phanting, I did my biometrics and other formalities. I got in, but then felt thristy...asked for water, assistant was kind enuf to hand that over to me.
I started, got done with AWA, having made some valid points I felt I had done decent job. In the break I realized I had lost my pan card and driving licence. I asked the guy at the centre if he I had left them at his table, he said I had not, worried again. I was running out of time, so got in and started maths, upto 6 questions I found it was simple and didnt have much problem. The seventh one was when I got stuck, cz I knew I can do it. It was time-speed-distance question, but honestly I had done a question like that only in my 10th in physics. I had trouble recalling the formulas one of them, took me around 10 mins. I was very concious of the fact that I have to do first 12 questions correctly to score well, so I didnt give up but at the same time worried me. I finally marked the wrong one, which I realized after I confirmed my answer. I was running out of time for other questions, finally had to mark last 2 questions with solving them.
Screwing maths so badly was always going in my head, even when I was doing my verbal and rest of the story is told by my score....!!!
I wrote my gmat yesterday, could not have been worse.
When I started 2 months back, I was always aiming 730+. I don't where this figure came from, but this is the score I aimed at.
I gave mock test like anybody seriously preparing for the exam will do.
In Kaplan, I scored 550(which it eventually turned out to be) and in gmat preps scored 640 in one and 690 in the other. I had to reschedule my exam by a month when I had to tend to certain family things and also I thought I will put on some more effort to achieve at least 700 mark. I started preparing more seriously after I rescheduled my exam. Even though I did not take a full length test after gmat preps, I used to take the sectional tests by score top. I never found any problem as far as scores is considered, at least in maths with 6 wrong ans is the worst I had performed in them.
3-4 days before exam I caught this cough-cold fever, and this to some affected my preparation. As I was very concious that I have to be perfectly fine on the D day, I preferred not to over-stress myself.. This helped me to be a little better on the exam day, but I had not completely recovered.
On the exam day, I reached the centre 30 mins before the scheduled time. When it was 25 mins to go, the guy at the centre asked me for my ID proof. I presented my Driving Licence, he said it won't work as the ID proof, I handed him my pan card. Then he informed me, I was supposed to bring my passport with me. I missed this in the instructions, as this was not mentioned in the mail which I received after I rescheduled my exam. Though, it was mentioned in the mail I had got initially. I urged the guy to allow me to take up the exam, but he refused categorically. Then 15 mins before the exam, I asked him to give me 15 mins more which anybody gets after his actually scheduled time. When it took my 35 mins to reach exam centre from my home. I had 30 mins to reach home, get passport and then come back, I drove crazily and managed to reach back in 28 mins. While I was phanting, I did my biometrics and other formalities. I got in, but then felt thristy...asked for water, assistant was kind enuf to hand that over to me.
I started, got done with AWA, having made some valid points I felt I had done decent job. In the break I realized I had lost my pan card and driving licence. I asked the guy at the centre if he I had left them at his table, he said I had not, worried again. I was running out of time, so got in and started maths, upto 6 questions I found it was simple and didnt have much problem. The seventh one was when I got stuck, cz I knew I can do it. It was time-speed-distance question, but honestly I had done a question like that only in my 10th in physics. I had trouble recalling the formulas one of them, took me around 10 mins. I was very concious of the fact that I have to do first 12 questions correctly to score well, so I didnt give up but at the same time worried me. I finally marked the wrong one, which I realized after I confirmed my answer. I was running out of time for other questions, finally had to mark last 2 questions with solving them.
Screwing maths so badly was always going in my head, even when I was doing my verbal and rest of the story is told by my score....!!!
EBM
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21 Dec 2010, 11:38
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Well, it's pretty clear that the pre-exam rush took you out of your rhythm. You sound like you're pretty confident with your quant skills, so that score should improve if you retake the test.
As for verbal, 22 is pretty low. How does that compare to what you expected to score? Were you still getting over being flustered by your drive back and forth?
Judging by the grammar in your post, English is not your first language...so in addition to studying test prep books on how to attack the questions, I'd recommend doing as much English-language reading as possible. Books, newspapers, magazines, whatever. That'll help you get a feel for what "sounds" right/wrong, which is just as useful on sentence corrections as anything you'll learn from Princeton/Manhattan Prep.
As for verbal, 22 is pretty low. How does that compare to what you expected to score? Were you still getting over being flustered by your drive back and forth?
Judging by the grammar in your post, English is not your first language...so in addition to studying test prep books on how to attack the questions, I'd recommend doing as much English-language reading as possible. Books, newspapers, magazines, whatever. That'll help you get a feel for what "sounds" right/wrong, which is just as useful on sentence corrections as anything you'll learn from Princeton/Manhattan Prep.
21 Dec 2010, 22:39
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emont
Dear emont,
Thanks for putting your thoughts across...appreciate it.
Yes, I am confident in maths and not so in verbal. But I never thought my verbal skills would be judged by my grammar usage in the post above.
English is definitely not my first language but my English grammar skills are not as bad as they appear in this post. I can easily point out the grammatical mistakes I have done above, but when you have to pour your heart in, grammar hardly matters. 
Having said that, my verbal scores in the practice tests were not very good, in the last gmat prep it was 36. In scoretop tests, which are not CAT based, I usually got 7-15 wrong. I was not sure about verbal scores and the only thing I was sure about was I can not do extra-ordinarily well in verbal, as it is not my forte. But score of 22 is certainly way below my expectations. Now that I have experienced what actual exam is like, I think I have identified the mistakes I have done. I think 700+ score along with what a person goes through before exam and how he tackles questions during the exam is determined by how sure he is about his scores in both the sections. For example by being sure of at least 49 in maths and 37 in verbal, I can be sure of at least 700. I knew I have ability to score consistently above 49 in maths, but there was no similar figure for verbal because my performance was inconsistent and I took it too for granted.
After an emotional setback, I am planning a re-take. But I will need to make sure I am consistently performing well in verbal before scheduling an gmat appointment. I will work on my verbal skills, please suggest how exactly to do that.
As in, which books, materials?
What my approach to improve verbal skills shall be?
I can devote at max 2 hours daily to my prep, so how long do you think will it take me to be up to the mark? I wanted to apply in the colleges in the next session.
Another thing which concerns me is, that I have already sent my present scores to the colleges I wanted to get into, I obviously wont be considered there with my present score. Can I ask pearson not to send my score to these colleges?
